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Even Mormons Jumping Off Bush Bandwagon As
War Takes Its Toll
By Bill Gallagher
04/03/07 "NFR"
- --- - DETROIT -- Iraq is lost militarily and politically.
Even the Mormons are now abandoning President George W. Bush's
mad war. That's akin to the Swiss Guard deserting and leaving
the pope to fend for himself with the Vatican under siege.
Other than his own greedy family members, oil barons and
military contractors, no group of Americans has stood so
steadfastly behind the Bush administration than the members of
the Church of Latter-day Saints.
Voters in Utah, the Mormon theocracy, have supported Bush with
loyalty they usually reserve for the Brigham Young football
team. In 2004, Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's criminal
enterprise got 71 percent of the vote in Utah.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that a two-year compilation of
Gallup polls showed staunch support among Mormons for the war in
Iraq and Bush's handling of the violence: "American Mormons,
more than any other religious group over that period, believed
the United States was right to invade Iraq."
But a recent survey found "just 44 percent of those identifying
themselves as Mormons said they backed Bush's war management."
Mormon support for the war has plunged 21 percentage points in
just five months.
The defection of the Mormons is a seismic political event, and
you can bet Bush's political brain, Karl Rove, turns pale when
he sees those numbers. The head of the Church of Latter-day
Saints is expressing doubts about war, and the mayor of Salt
Lake City is leading the charge to impeach Bush.
LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley may have set the stage for the
precipitous plunge in Mormon support for the war. Speaking to
students at Brigham Young University last fall, Hinckley spoke
of "the terrible cost of war."
While not mentioning Iraq or Bush directly, the church leader
said of war, "What a fruitless thing it often is," adding, "And
what a terrible price it extracts." In the Mormon tradition, the
words of the church president are carefully weighed.
Kirk Jowers, the director of the University of Utah's Hinckley
Institute of Politics, told the Salt Lake Tribune the church
leader's remarks "may have been interpreted by the LDS community
as an indictment against the world's violence."
Jowers said, "Small phrases by President Hinckley are to the LDS
community as Alan Greenspan's words were to the financial
community."
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, a lapsed Mormon, rejected
subtle pronouncements and ambiguity. He said Bush should be
impeached for committing "high crimes and misdemeanors."
Anderson had the guts to say what every clear-thinking American
ought to be shouting from the mountain tops.
Anderson told CNN, "If impeachment were ever justified, this is
certainly the time. This president, by engaging in such
incredible abuses of power, breaches of trust with both the
Congress and the American people, and misleading us into this
tragic and unbelievable war, the violation of treaties, other
international law, our Constitution, our own domestic laws and
then his role in heinous human rights abuse; I think all of that
together calls for impeachment."
Whatever Democratic candidate for president will say and embrace
similar words of truth has my support. That sure as hell will
not be the calculating, triangulating Hillary Clinton. Such
crisp honesty escapes her. Other leaders in the Democratic Party
are similarity afflicted with the play-it-safe syndrome.
Anderson made his fellow Democrats cringe, saying forthrightly,
"The fact that anybody would say that impeachment is off the
table when we have a president who has been so egregious in his
violation of our Constitution, a president who asserts unitary
executive power, that is absolutely chilling."
Anderson denounced the "culture of obedience" that has so
damaged our nation and weakened the Democratic Party.
Bush will now blame Congress, the Democrats and the Iraqi people
for the disaster in Iraq that was doomed from its inception.
Those of us who rejected the "culture of obedience" are seeing
the horrible tragedy we predicted unfolding every day.
Bush's surge is just another slogan. There is no military
solution that will undo the fiasco the invasion and occupation
have brought.
Bush only wants to keep the war going long enough to pass the
bloody baton to his successor. Then he will fade into
ignominious oblivion, hiding out at his ranch in Texas, even
more disconnected from the suffering his messianic megalomania
and unrivaled incompetence have brought the world.
Last week, 152 people were killed when a truck bomb exploded in
Tal Afar, making it the single deadliest bombing attack since
the war began. Bush claimed last March that Tal Afar was a great
Iraq success story. If Americans knew more about these stories,
the White House argued at the time, they would have more
confidence in Bush's victory strategy.
On March 23, 2006, Bush told a crowd of supporters in Cleveland
he had found the magic bullet in Tal Afar, driving terrorists
from what he hailed as a "free city."
Bush gushed about his success in the northern Iraq city,
bellowing to the faithful, "The strategy that worked so well in
Tal Afar did not emerge overnight -- it came only after much
trial and error. It took time to understand and adjust to the
brutality of the enemy in Iraq, yet the strategy is working."
The reality in Tal Afar destroys "Bubble Boy" Bush's grand
delusions. In revenge attacks, Shiite police rounded up 70
people in a Sunni neighborhood and summarily executed them. Can
Bush and his strategists explain for us what brutal enemies are
responsible for this bloodshed?
Last week, more than 500 people were killed. The death toll will
continue as long as American troops remain in Iraq. Only
political reconciliation can salvage the nation, and Iraqis must
determine their own destiny. The arrogance and cruelty of
western occupation will never bring peace and stability to Iraq.
The extent of the civilian casualties in Iraq will make us
despised in the Middle East for decades to come. Bush's war
gives the bin Ladens of the world just what they want.
The British, our only significant ally in Iraq, are now
confirming that the scientists who concluded more than 600,000
Iraqis have been killed since the invasion were spot-on.
The study done by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and
the Al Mustansiriyia University in Baghdad was originally
published last October in the British medical journal "The
Lancet."
At the time, the U.S. and British governments rejected the
death-toll survey. Bush dismissed the report as "unreliable,"
while failing to offer a scintilla of evidence to support his
claim. The toadies in the corporate media let him get away with
it.
The chief scientific adviser to the British Ministry of Defense,
Roy Anderson, reviewed the methodology used in calculating the
Iraq death toll. He told the Independent newspaper the methods
were "robust" and "close to best practice." Another official
told the paper it was "a tried and tested way of measuring
mortality in conflict zones."
Now that our aggression has shattered Iraq, Bush and his neocon
Amen Chorus are now blaming the Iraqis for their fate. They just
don't appreciate what we've done for them. Sure, there have been
a few casualties, but that's the price of freedom, these
condescending cowards are saying. We gave them a chance, and
those ignorant, unruly desert people are rejecting our gifts.
The other promised benefits from Operation Iraqi Liberation --
OIL -- are just not materializing. A Saddamless Iraq was sure to
stabilize and democratize the Middle East, and make Israel safe
and secure. Our "moderate" Arab friends would join in our
crusade, and peace would spread like wildfire. But somehow
Bush's hubris has collided with reality, and his geopolitical
fantasies are manifest failures.
Even Bush's hand-holding buddy Saudi King Abdullah has abandoned
him. The king cancelled his appearance at a White House dinner
planned to honor him next month. This extraordinary diplomatic
insult is a measure of the Saudis' anger and the strain on their
long friendship with the United States.
The Busheviks have rejected everything the Saudis have tried to
do to broker a deal to jump-start talks with the Palestinian
government, settle tensions in Lebanon and bring Iran into
regional discussions.
King Abdullah now calls the U.S forces in Iraq "an illegal
foreign occupation." The Saudis are skeptical of any hope for
peace in the region. Like the Mormons, they are bailing out on
Bush's war.
Hinckley, the prophet and seer for millions of Mormons around
the world, spoke about how fleeting the power of military and
political leaders can be in his remarks at Brigham Young.
"They ruled with near omnipotence, and their very words brought
terror into the hearts of people," he said. And yet, he added,
"they have all passed into the darkness of the grave."
Bush's war in Iraq is lost. Nothing can be done to recover from
it. The war and the people who created it have descended into
the darkness of the grave.
Bill Gallagher, a Peabody Award winner, is a former Niagara
Falls city councilman who now covers Detroit for Fox2 News. His
e-mail address is
gallaghernewsman@sbcglobal.net.
Copyright - Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com
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